Hockey

Marcus Hellberg endures roller-coaster day

Friday morning, Milwaukee's Magnus Hellberg was named goalie of the month in the American Hockey League.

About eight hours later, he was benched during his team's 5-1 loss to Grand Rapids in front of 5,124 fans at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

"Of course it's an honor to get this," Hellberg said. "I have to thank my teammates as well. We've been playing good lately.

"But as I say, you're never better than your last game. And today was a tough night."

Milwaukee dropped to 10 points behind first-place Grand Rapids in the Midwest Division, as Hellberg's four-game winning streak at home was snapped.

The rookie, who finished February with a 6-1 record, a 1.36 goals-against average and a .950 save percentage, allowed four of the 14 shots he faced to go in before he was replaced by Jeremy Smith in the middle of the second period.

"I think it's not particularly the goals, it's the way I played today," Hellberg said. "I was too passive in the net and didn't challenge as much as I wanted to. I don't think you can look at one particular goal. Of course the last one wasn't good and maybe some others, too."

Four-plus minutes after Hellberg got a delay-of-game penalty for mistakenly passing the puck over the glass - Grand Rapids did not score on the power play - the goalie watched Jan Mursak fake out Victor Bartley in the slot with a nifty move that led to a goal and 4-1 Griffins' lead with 8 minutes 49 seconds left in the second period. That's when Smith took his place.

"I respect the coach's choices, of course," Hellberg said. "I think I didn't deserve to play after the goals I let in. So they did the right choice. I just have to bounce back and forget about this game."

Hellberg's night got off to a bad start when he failed to slide more to his right, allowing Francis Pare to score through an opening in the left side of the net for a 1-0 lead with 12:29 to go in the first.

Just 9 seconds into the second, Hellberg gave up a goal to Gustav Nyquist on a shot that sailed past the sticks of Bartley and Joonas Jarvinen.

There wasn't much Hellberg could do to stop Grand Rapids' third goal. Mursak shot the puck toward the net, where it was deflected in by Luke Glendening as he was standing at the crease with 14:46 left in the second.

Milwaukee's only goal came from Patrick Cehlin, who snapped a 25-game streak without one to tie the score at 1-1 with 11:02 left in the first.

"Without having watched our scoring chances, we think we out-chanced that hockey club tonight," Admirals coach Dean Evason said. "And that's a good team. The looks that we had - breakaways, opportunities in front - it's just kind of our deal. We struggle to score goals with getting the chances and it's hard to recover from some pucks that shouldn't go into the net. For whatever reason, it's hard for our group to recover."